One of Europe’s most exposed conventional military shortcomings is long-range strike capabilities. At the beginning of May 2026, that shortfall got worse. The Trump administration shelved a Biden-era agreement to station Typhon launchers and Tomahawk cruise missiles on German soil from 2027, the bridging capability Berlin had counted on while European systems came online. The autonomy programs designed to fill the gap will not deliver in time. Brussels is now mobilizing money at unprecedented scale, but the deep-strike systems Europe is developing are scheduled for service entry between 2028 and 2035, with the most capable systems clustered toward the back end of that window.

Asymmetry with Russia

The status quo is not exactly flattering for a continent that calls itself a serious military power. Among European NATO members, only Turkey currently fields conventional ground-launched ballistic missiles with ranges above 300 kilometers, the indigenously developed Bora and Tayfun Block I systems. No other European NATO state operates a ground-launched cruise or ballistic missile capable of reaching beyond that distance. The continent does field air-launched cruise missiles, the Franco-British Storm Shadow, the German-Swedish Taurus KEPD 350, the American JASSM and JASSM-ER, but they require survivable aircraft to deliver them, and stockpiles have been heavily depleted by transfers to Ukraine. The Royal Navy’s Tomahawk Block IV/V missiles, with ranges around 1,600 kilometers, remain the longest-range conventional missile in service with any European NATO member, but the inventory has always been small.